there enjoying perfect liberty.

In the evening, at the hour fixed, Caesar appeared at Lucrezia's; but he
found there his brother Francesco. The two young men had never been
friends. Still, as their tastes were very different, hatred with
Francesco was only the fear of the deer for the hunter; but with Caesar
it was the desire for vengeance and that lust for blood which lurks
perpetually in the heart of a tiger. The two brothers none the less
embraced, one from general kindly feeling, the other from hypocrisy; but
at first sight of one another the sentiment of a double rivalry, first in
their father's and then in their sister's good graces, had sent the blood
mantling to the cheek of Francesco, and called a deadly pallor into
Caesar's. So the two young men sat on, each resolved not to be the first
to leave, when all at once there was a knock at the door, and a rival was
announced before whom both of them were bound to give way: it was their
father.

Rosa Vanazza was quite right in comforting Caesar. Indeed, although
Alexander VI had repudiated the abuses of nepotism, he understood very
well the part that was to be played for his benefit by his sons and his
daughter; for he knew he could always count on Lucrezia and Caesar, if
not on Francesco and Goffredo. In these matters the sister was quite
worthy of her brother. Lucrezia was wanton in imagination, godless by
nature, ambitious and designing: she had a craving for pleasure,
admiration, honours, money, jewels, gorgeous stuffs, and magnificent
mansions. A true Spaniard beneath her golden tresses, a courtesan
beneath her frank looks, she carried the head of a Raphael Madonna, and
concealed the heart of a Messalina. She was dear to Roderigo both as
daughter and as mistress, and he saw himself reflected in her as in a
magic mirror, every passion and every vice. Lucrezia and Caesar were